Five Hundred Years
by Orodruin
Summary: YYHIY crossover one shot. They told him she would be back in five hundred years, but a kitsune isn't so gullible as to believe such a fantastic story. KK.


Five Hundred Years

_Summary: _YYH/IY crossover one shot. They told him she would be back in five hundred years, but a kitsune isn't so gullible as to believe such a fantastic story. K/K.

_Other:_ Again, this is a one shot. As a rule I dislike romance stories, but the plot bunny was after me so I had to write down the idea to get it out of my system. The rodent wanted it to be a full-fledged story, but I know I'd never be able to write a good novel-length romance story so I figured I better cut it down to a one shot. So this is what you're getting and this is all you're getting. Enjoy.

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Kurama. I don't own Kagome. I don't own the well.

* * *

Kurama stared at the stairs that led up to the temple morosely. He didn't even know why he was here. To chase some fantastic story, so fantastic he'd have to be a lunatic to believe it. He didn't believe it. He'd told himself a thousand times—more than a thousand times—that it couldn't be true. But he'd still came. 

Swallowing down his indecision, Kurama slowly, soundlessly, made his way up the stairs under the glow of the silver moon. Each step was heavy and the conflicting emotions he felt inside of him made it difficult to continue. A spark of hope would well up inside him, only to be beaten down by his pessimistic realism, only to rise again. It was getting out of control.

He strolled through the empty courtyard and stopped before a tree. He looked up at it, a faint smile on his lips. The sad smile of someone lost in past adventures of heroism and love. It had been five hundred years, he reminded himself. He should be over her by now. But thanks to that ridiculous story he hadn't been able to bring himself to move on.

Turning his head away from the tree, Kurama's eyes settled on a shed on the edge of the courtyard. The world seemed to spin around him for a moment and his heart pounded loudly in his ears. His breathing grew slightly ragged and sweat collected in the fists he wasn't aware he'd formed.

This was _stupid_! Kurama scolded himself sharply. He was unable to tear his eyes away. Slowly, as if dragged there by some mystic power, he started walking towards the shed. He stopped in front of the door. It was ridiculous and he didn't believe any of it for a moment.

Swallowing hard, Kurama quietly pushed open the door to the shed. It was unlocked, something that surprised him momentarily but wasn't important enough to stay with him long enough to even think about it. Kurama froze.

He felt the demon inside him stir as he stared down into the darkness of the shed, the only light to see by being the milky moonlight slipping in around him. It was enough for his enhanced senses to make out what was inside.

Slowly, numbly, Kurama started down the steps, not closing the door at the top. There seemed to be an awful lot of steps, Kurama thought, although intellectually he knew they were far less than the number of steps leading up to the grounds outside. Both he and the demonic presence inside him stared at it unblinkingly.

It was a well. A simple, dried out well. Nothing that should spark the interest of the once great thief. But to Kurama, the well meant everything. For a moment his certainty that the tale he'd been told was false faltered. For a moment he allowed himself to play with the idea that it was true. That any second she'd appear, smiling and laughing as he'd always seen her. For a moment Kurama was dragged to memories of a past he'd abandoned and he longed to return to it. Just one more time.

Kurama turned away from the well violently, breathing hard. It was a stupid story and he would be gullible and naïve to believe it. He started back up the steps. It had been five hundred years. It was time to get over it. Five hundred years to the day. To the hour. To the minute, almost. He couldn't believe he had come.

A soft sound made Kurama freeze in the doorway to the shed. His ear twitched slightly as both he and the demon within him listened intently. It sounded like... crying?

Slowly, Kurama turned, hardly able to breathe, his eyes trained on the well in the darkness.

Minutes stretched on and the soft crying trailed out. Kurama stiffened at the scuffling sound coming from inside the old well. He wanted to move, to fly down the steps to the well and look inside, but he couldn't lift a single foot. He was frozen... with what? Fear? Hope? His heart thudded loudly inside his chest.

His breath caught completely when a head of dark hair pushed out of the open mouth of the well. The figure, clothed in shadows, didn't look up as it painstakingly climbed out of the well.

He couldn't _breathe_. It was like everything inside of him had frozen up, even his lungs. If it weren't for his heart pounding so loudly in his ears he would think he'd died. The figure made its way to the bottom of the stairs and started climbing. It still hadn't looked up, but the scent carried up to Kurama. The scent that he'd longed to smell for five hundred years.

At last she looked up, freezing at the sight of a stranger blocking her path. Her hazel eyes were wide and round and wary and red from crying. Kurama couldn't imagine anything more beautiful.

"Kagome..." He managed to whisper, air finally returning to his lungs. His legs were suddenly weak underneath him and he felt like he'd collapse from relief.

"Do I know you?" The girl asked, her head tilting slightly with confusion.

Kurama couldn't respond. He knew that he was crying, he could feel the tears streaking down his cheeks, but he couldn't bring himself to care. She was _here_. After five hundred years!

The girl cautiously climbed the last few stairs to get a better look at the stranger who seemed to know her. He felt, she realized, vaguely familiar, and it reminded her painfully of the demon she'd left back in the feudal era. She pushed the pain down as her eyes threatened to tear up again. She couldn't just break into tears in front of a complete stranger! What would he think of her?

"Can I help you?" She asked hesitantly when he didn't respond to her initial question. She knew she should be careful, he was a strange man standing in her shed in the middle of the night. But his aura felt so familiar, so comforting, that she couldn't help but think he wouldn't hurt her.

Kurama knew he'd have to respond. Taking another deep breath to steady himself he spoke, "No one else can, my lady."

Kagome's eyes widened slightly at his words, spoken as if from the very mouth of the demon she'd grown to love. She felt tears pricking at her eyes again and this time she didn't force them back. She couldn't.

The aura... it felt so much like _his_. It felt so much like...

"Kurama..." She whimpered brokenly before dissolving into an embarrassing fit of tears.

Kurama rushed forward with concern and encircled her smaller body with his arms, allowing her to cry out her grief. It pained him greatly to hear her cry like this, and he whispered into her hair comfortingly.

"It's okay..." He murmured, "I'm here... It's alright, Kagome..."

At last Kagome's tears stopped and she looked up at him again, confusion and longing mixed together. "K-Kurama?" She asked uncertainly.

Kurama smiled down at her softly and nodded, "I'm here, Kagome..."

The girl stepped back slightly and looked him up and down again, the confusion evident on her features, "But... how...?" Her eyes met his, pleading for some explanation to a question she couldn't quite articulate.

"It's a long story," Kurama admitted, "But to make it short, I was shot, sixteen years ago. I abandoned my dying body and managed to find refuge in the body of an unborn infant. I'm still the Youko Kurama you knew, but I'm also a boy named Shuichi Minamino."

He looked at her calculatingly to see how she was taking the news and then smiled softly again. "But none of that has changed... my love for you. I've waited five hundred years, Kagome, and they've all been worth it to see your face again."

Kagome stared at him a moment longer before running into his embrace again, crying all over again only this time in joy and relief. "Oh, Kurama... I thought I'd lost you forever..."

"You couldn't get rid of me that easily," Kurama joked tenderly, stroking her hair as her tears slowly ebbed.

"I'm glad," Kagome sighed contentedly, leaning into his embrace.

Kurama just smiled, holding her and feeling complete like he hadn't in hundreds of years.


End file.
